Saturday, August 24, 2013

Roman Nanotechnology

Smithsonian Magazinedescribes how it is that the angle of lighting causes a famous Roman goblet to change
colors.

The glass chalice, known as the Lycurgus Cup because it bears a
scene involving King Lycurgus of Thrace, appears jade green when lit from the
front but blood-red when lit from behind--a property that puzzled
scientists for decades after the museum acquired the cup in the 1950s. The
mystery wasn't solved until 1990, when researchers in England scrutinized
broken fragments under a microscope and discovered that the Roman artisans were
nanotechnology pioneers: They'd impregnated the glass with particles of
silver and gold, ground down until they were as small as 50 nanometers in
diameter, less than one-thousandth the size of a grain of table salt. The exact
mixture of the precious metals suggests the Romans knew what they were
doing--"an amazing feat," says one of the researchers,
archaeologist Ian Freestone of University College London.

Their accidental discovery, now understood, may pave the way towards "handheld
devices for detecting pathogens in samples of saliva or urine, or for thwarting
terrorists trying to carry dangerous liquids onto airplanes".

"In
this 'Mother may I?' system, each proposed merger is automatically delayed
thirty days--longer if the government requires it--while the DOJ and
Federal Trade Commission sift through company documents and emails, compile
statistics, run computations, and consult experts." -- Thomas
Bowden, in "Justice Department Should Let US
Airways & American Airlines Merger Proceed" at Fox News

"Victim-think means assuming that because you are helpless and
powerless to force other people to change their behaviors and choices, that you
are equally helpless and powerless to do anything about people who annoy you."
-- Michael Hurd, in "'Victim Think' Not Good for the
'Victim'" at The Delaware Coast Press

"It
saddens me to think of people approaching a psychiatrist or therapist for help,
saying, 'I want to move past the trauma,' and being told, in effect, 'The
trauma is who you are.'" -- Michael Hurd, in "Is PTSD a Medical Disease?" at
The Delaware Wave

It is interesting to
consider the fact that, in covering two entirely different topics
in psychology, Michael Hurd demonstrates the omnipresence of helplessness -- be
it learned or encouraged -- in our culture.